JANUARY: Lucius Fox – Wayne Enterprises’ second in command behind Bruce Wayne – makes his debut in BATMAN #307. Morgan Freeman would play the character years later on film in Christopher Nolan’s DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY.

APRIL: The original Bruce Wayne/Batman – the “Golden Age” version of the character from Earth 2 – is murdered in ADVENTURE COMICS #462.

MAY:DETECTIVE COMICS #483 marked the 40th anniversary of Batman. The villain Maxie Zeus makes his debut in this issue.

SEPTEMBER: The original Batwoman – Kathy Kane – was killed by the Bronze Tiger in DETECTIVE COMICS #485.

OCTOBER: On October 3, 1979, Michael Uslan and Benjamin Melniker secured the film rights to the DC Comics character “Batman.” Thus began the difficult journey to bring the “dark and serious” version of Batman to the big screen.

JETT REMEMBERS
When it comes to the Batman comics of 1979, I’m not sure how many I actually read. BUT, I did buy and still own ADVENTURE COMICS #462.

For some reason, I dug (and still dig) these “alternate universe” versions of Batman. And the fact that they killed off the original, 1939 version of Batman blew my mind!

I must say that without a doubt, the most important thing that happened in the world of Batman in 1979 was Mr. Uslan (my friend whom I call “Mr. U”) and Mr. Melniker secured the film rights to Batman. If this had not happened – along with Mr. U’s tireless efforts to see a “dark and serious” Batman film come to fruition – I don’t know what would’ve ultimately happened to this great character in the realm of cinema. - Bill "Jett" Ramey